Thursday, February 12, 2004

Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries (PC)

Rating: 2 out of 5

Pros: Unique system of espionage, fun gameplay and replay value; great multiplayer fun

Cons: Sub-par graphics and sound, tries to hard to be like other games

Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries is a real-time strategy game from Enlight Software, and published by Interactive Magic. It was released in 1998, a year after the original Seven Kingdoms
graced the shelves of your local video stores. The man responsible for
the game is none other than Trevor Chan, whom you may recognize as the
genius behind Capitalism.

Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries is little more than a small expansion pack for the original, sold as a stand-alone title. Owners of the original Seven Kingdoms can download a 15 MB patch from Interactive Magic's website to update their game. The patch can also be downloaded from major download centers such as ZDNet.

Seven Kingdoms tries to pass itself off as the love child of Warcraft and Capitalism.
While this works to a certain extent, it is sorely lacking in too many
areas to pull it off effectively. If you were expecting the hybrid game
it was supposed to be, it will leave you feeling cheated.

None of the complexity and depth of Capitalism are present in Seven Kingdoms.. there isn't even a technology tree. While Seven Kingdoms was busy trying to dress itself up like these other games, it neglected to make sure that the dressing would fit.

While there are seven different civilizations to choose from, they all
play basically the same. The only difference seems to be the background
music and the character graphics. The military of each culture is
equally diverse, having only one type of soldier to pick from.

If you want to train anything other than a basic soldier, you must
build a war factory. Nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that
each unit you build (cannons, ballistae, catapults, etc) takes forever to research, then forever to build.

The only other type of unit you can use is a supernatural being, and it
is unbelievably hard to summon. You first destroy a layer of Frythans.
They are evil creatures who live in layers scattered across the map.
Upon defeating them you get a scroll of power, which you can use to
build a temple.

Each scroll is made for a certain people, so
if you play as the Normans and receive a Japanese scroll, then you will
have to go take over a Japanese town so that you have some Japanese
people to worship in your temple. Then, only after ages of worshiping, can you summon this ultimate of creatures, who will be at your beck and call for a limited time.

The controls are really easy, having only to use the two mouse buttons
to do everything in the game. Drag a square around multiple units to
select them. Click on a person, then click on a building to have them
enter. Not that you actually get to do that much, because aside from
your forts and markets, most buildings have very little interaction to
them.

If a mine is close to a town, workers will automatically
mine ore with no help from you. If a factory is near-by, more workers
will refine the ore. Build a market near there, and they will stock the
market, and the market will then sell the products to your people and
make you some money.

The only interaction you have with your
markets, is to hire trade caravans. These caravans can have up to three
stops, the first obviously being the market at which you hired it. It
can then traverse the map and stop at one or two other markets, picking
up resources and bringing them back to your market for sale. These other
stops can only be at markets belonging to a culture with which you have
a trade treaty though, and their caravans will undoubtedly stop at your
market as well.

Forts are the other main building that has
some type of interaction. Each fort can have a general (or your king)
and up to eight soldiers. Soldiers start out really weak in this game,
and only gain skills by spending a long time in a fort with a general
training. Forts should be built next to neutral towns, and the town's
resistance will (slowly) decrease, and when it reaches zero the town
will submit to your rule.

If you don't have the patience for
that, there are other ways to gain new towns. If your army is large, you
can simply wipe out any resistance. Or, if you have more money than
Bill Gates, you can give some to the people of the town to decrease
their resistance a bit. The latter should usually be used when the
town's resistance is already low (10 or less) so that they can cheaply
and quickly be put under your rule.

Inns are another building
that has some kind of interaction, but not much. The only thing you can
do at an inn is hire additional people. The people you can hire are from
random cultures and random professions. They are usually trained better
than your fresh-from-the-village peasants, but they cost a bit of money
to hire. Useful if you, for example, are under attack and need more
soldiers. Just hope there are some soldiers at the inn with good
combat..

The music is rather bland. It don't get on your
nerves or distract you from playing the game. The sound effects are the
same way, average at best, but what can you expect from a game that is
seven years old? The graphics are slightly below average as well, and
after playing the game for a few hours, you will find yourself wishing
this game looked more like Age of Empires.

There are trees and oceans and things in Seven Kingdoms,
but they are mainly there for decorative purposes. Trees cannot be
harvested and chopped into lumber, as that resource isn't needed
apparently, nor are most others.

Oceans can eventually be traveled by water units, but you will find that you never
end up having any before the game is over. Before you are able to even
build water units, you must research too many other ground units at the
tower of science. I suppose this is to make up for the fact that there
is no technology tree.

The saving grace of Seven Kingdoms
is the espionage. You can train spies to infiltrate enemy kingdoms.
Once there, they can start lowering the loyalty of the townspeople, or
work their way up the enemy's ranks, eventually earning a place next to
an enemy general. They can bribe enemy soldiers, who then become spies
themselves. They can even try to bribe the general, or assassinate him.

The artificial intelligence makes great
use of this feature. Many times during a game, you will see four or
five spies executed in a single minute. The AI is pretty well-rounded as
well. It does a good job of setting up towns, establishing trade
routes, destroying Frythan layers, and attacking.

I've found
that if I leave the Frythan layers alone, and just build up my forces,
it is easier to kill off an enemy. Just wait until he finishes wiping
out a Frythan layer, when his forces have been slightly depleted, then
strike with your full force to wipe out his.

There are a few campaigns to complete in Seven Kingdoms,
as well as the usual random maps. The multi-player are one of the most
fun parts of the game, with the spying and espionage developed so well.
There is support for up to seven players via LAN, modem, internet, or
serial connection.

Overall, I like this game. It is really fun, and when I start a game, I
find myself playing for hours. Despite all the down-sides with this
game, it is fun and has a lot of replay value.

I would recommend Seven Kingdoms
to anyone who likes real-time strategy games, as long as you can find
it for a reasonable price. I got my copy for $10 at Wal-Mart, so I'm not
complaining. If you like Seven Kingdoms, you may also enjoy Warcraft II, Capitalism, Age of Empires, or Majesty.